Dovizioso leads Rossi in FP1
Fresh from “probably the best test of my life” at this track, Andrea Dovizioso carried his preseason form into the first round of 2018 by topping MotoGP FP1 at Qatar.
It was an Italian one-two on Friday afternoon as Valentino Rossi underlined his intentions early into the year, placing second with a lap time that was just 0.061s back of his fellow countryman and 2017’s runner-up.
Marc Marquez was typically lurking with intent in third, the reigning world champion a considerable 0.37s back of his rival from last year at the close of the 45 minutes.
Fresh from “probably the best test of my life” at this track, Andrea Dovizioso carried his preseason form into the first round of 2018 by topping MotoGP FP1 at Qatar.
It was an Italian one-two on Friday afternoon as Valentino Rossi underlined his intentions early into the year, placing second with a lap time that was just 0.061s back of his fellow countryman and 2017’s runner-up.
Marc Marquez was typically lurking with intent in third, the reigning world champion a considerable 0.37s back of his rival from last year at the close of the 45 minutes.
Late improvements carried Andrea Iannone to fourth on the timesheets, ahead of Jorge Lorenzo who was fast from the off on a Ducati GP18 that, interestingly, didn’t feature the aerodynamic fairing.
Johann Zarco, the sensation from last year’s Grand Prix of Qatar, was a quietly impressive sixth, narrowly back of Lorenzo, while LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow built on his fine preseason pace by posting the seventh fastest time.
Alex Rins (eighth) and Danilo Petrucci (ninth), two riders that stood out in terms of pace at the final preseason test here two weeks ago, were comfortably inside the top ten, while Tito Rabat was a fine tenth.
There appears to be much to do for Spaniards Maverick Viñales (eleventh) and Dani Pedrosa (twelfth), both of whom placing well back of their team-mates while Aleix Espargaro debuted Aprilia’s 2018 engine, taking the 13th fastest time in the process.
There were crashes for class rookie Thomas Luthi (turn one) and Pol Espargaro (turn four), while technical glitches appeared to hamper the Angel Nieto Team Ducatis of Alvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham.
